Guitar news, reviews, interviews, videos and lessons

Tag: Stratoblogster

Metallica ‘Broken, Beat & Scarred’ singleThe forthcoming Metallica ‘Broken, Beat & Scarred’ single is one for the diehard collectors, as well as geeks like me who once upon a time may or may not have religiously collected the Star Wars Fact Files or something similar. A-hem.

PRS Signature Series cableTrue gearhounds know that your guitar cable is an extremely important part of the signal chain. You may have the best pickups and guitar woods in the world, but without a good cable it’s going to sound weak and stinky. PRS to the rescue! PRS Guitars and Bond Music Research introduce the PRS Signature Series Cables, including guitar and speaker cables manufactured to exacting specifications. PRS Signature Series Cable is manufactured from the finest materials by noted UK-based cable stalwart Van Damme. Paul Reed Smith himself said “Every inch of a PRS guitar is based on decades of testing, rethinking, and reinventing. We continue to push the curve and, in regard to our new PRS Signature Series Cable, the same holds true.” PRS Signature Series instrument cables range in price from MSRP $49.95 to $64.95 depending upon length. The company’s loudspeaker cable carries an MSRP of $49.95 to $89.95. PRS Signature Series Cable is available through authorized PRS Guitar retailers and is available now. Every cable includes a full lifetime warranty.

In a last minute scramble to add just one more price point in time for Winter NAMM ’09 in Anaheim, Fender has decided to follow its new MIM Road Worn Series with a Squier Relic treatment.

This newest Squier RUG BURN Series will incorporate the ever popular aging & distressing features into the Indonesian produced Squier line of guitars & basses, to be priced at a mid point between the standard Squier line and the Standard Baja manufactured products.

According to a company spokesperson, “We have a 10-15 age demographic just ready to make the jump from game controllers to a product with the appearance of something a great grandparent might have owned. It’s important to keep that heritage going, and at $329 we feel the RUG BURN Series is gonna fit right into that Xbox 360 niche. Creating another price point was only a minor consideration– as our priority is simply to service the needs of our public in the best way possible.”

Each RUG BURN Series instrument begins as a standard finished Squier model, which is then placed into “the tumbler”; a large rotating drum– similar to a concrete mixer, which is lined with Dupont Stainmaster berber style carpeting. During the tumbling process thousands of walnuts are introduced along with dried mustard for age tinting. After leaving the tumbler, the guitar is then “dusted” off with high pressure air & Kool Menthol unfiltered tobacco jets, after which the strings are finally added. Then each Rug Burn Series model is prepared for shipping in its own Dupont Stainmaster berber style carpet lined gig bag along with a Dupont Stainmaster berber style carpet strap.

Both the gig bag and strap are designed to help maintain the freshness of your RUG BURN Series instrument’s finish for many years to come.

Watch for the RUG BURN Series! And remember, it’s not a Squier Rug Burn unless it has the, “RUG BURN Series” sticker on the pickguard. So take one for test tumble soon at your nearest Fender dealer and you might just walk out with a Rug Burn of your very own!

(parody)

This is a guest post by JP from Stratoblogster – a very cool site with lots of great content, Stratty and otherwise. Go check it out! Here are some stories to get you started.

I was just cruising the Earvana website after following a link from Strat-O-Blogster, and I noticed that Earvana is working on a compensated nut for Floyd Rose guitars. This is great news for those of us who love their whammy bar freakouts but wish their guitars had better intonation.

The Earvana nut optimises the scale length of each string for better intonation between the 1st and 12th frets, so chords sound more in tune and notes ‘sit’ easier in a mix. I’ve tried the Earvana system on a bunch of guitars (including many ESPs) and I find it to be a really useful, unobstructive way of attaining vastly improved intonation.

Perhaps the only option out there that beats it is the True Temperament system, but the Earvana system is by far the cheapest and easiest option. Let’s not forget the Buzz Feiten method though, while we’re having an intonation-improving love-in, but Earvana certainly beats Buzz in terms of bucks and ease of implementation.

I recently stumbled upon the excellent Strat-o-blogster blog which features lots of great Stratty goodness. Site owner JP has a very easy-to-read style, is very knowledgable and has a great sense of humour – some of these posts have me spraying coffee out my nose. I’m slowly working my way through backposts, in between practicing my Jason Becker arpeggios and trying to nail the marimba solo from St Alphonzo’s Pancake Breakfaston guitar.

And what better way to while away the hours when I’m supposed to be working than looking at unusual and awesome Strats like the Japanese-made 68 Zebrawood Stratocaster reissue pictured here?

I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.

You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, check out the I Heart Guitar podcast and feel free to email me at peter@iheartguitarblog.com - oh and unsolicited SEO service emails will be printed out just so I can have the tactile pleasure of having something to scrunch up and throw in the trash.